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On July 1, DPJ President Yukio Hatoyama met with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Tokyo.
Hatoyama, while stating that the Japan-US relationship was the most important bilateral relationship, said that, “An emphasis on the United Nations is the basis for the DPJ’s foreign policy” explaining that the DPJ would place more emphasis on the UN than the present government. Moreover, he explained that it was precisely because the party placed importance on the UN that it considered “the elimination” of the enemy state clauses in the UN Charter to be important. Ban said he recognised that this was a significance issue that also related to the pride of the Japanese people, but explained that as with the many proposals to reform the UN, the current situation was that the process of amending the Charter was in itself difficult. He expressed the opinion that “the enemy state clauses are in fact obsolete clauses.”
Ban pointed out that Japan was contributing to the UN and to the international community in many fields including peace, national security, human rights, humanitarian assistance and development, and called for that support to continue. Moreover, he cited the problems of climate change, food supply, measures for preventing the spread of new influenza strains, and the development of nuclear weapons by North Korea as themes which called for support that crossed national and party boundaries. He expressed his strong expectation that Japan, as a technological giant, would set ambitious targets to combat global-warming, and show the way for the international community in this respect.
Hatoyama commented on the mid-term targets for greenhouse gas reductions adopted by the Japanese government, criticising them as, “by no means satisfactory figures.” He expressed the opinion that the DPJ believed Japan should achieve a target of minus 25% by 1990 levels, and said that if Japan used her technological skills this target was obtainable.
Hatoyama went on to say that it was necessary to amend Japan’s domestic law in order to implement the sanctions against North Korea according to the UN resolution, and he stressed that although the DPJ was in opposition, they recognised the need for this. He pointed out that in addition to liaison between Japan and the Republic of Korea and sharing of information with the United States, it was important to encourage North Korea to participate in dialogues such as the Six Party Talks, and said that he hoped to see leadership from the Secretary General in this respect.
Finally, Hatoyama said that the Prime Minister of Japan should attend the UN General Assembly meeting scheduled to be held in the third week of September, and expressed his resolution, saying, “I would like to bring about a change of government by that time.”
The meeting was also attended by Secretary General Okada, Next Minister of Foreign Affairs Yoshio Hachiro, Director General of the Executive Office Hirofumi Hirano, Director General of the International Department Tetsundo Iwakuni and Vice Director General of the International Department Yukihisa Fujita for the DPJ.
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